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New Sony Xperia X Series: First impressions

The announcements of Samsung and LG at the MWC 2016 are definitely hard to follow, but Sony had a surprise of its own during its press event. Several leaks intimated that a new smartphone will be unveiled by Sony during the event and the company, as expected, delivered.

Although no announcement was made regarding a new Xperia Z flagship handset to compete with the recently unveiled LG G5 and Samsung Galaxy S7, Sony instead introduced three new Xperia smartphones that further blurs the lines that set high-end flagships apart from mid-range Android devices.

Called the Xperia X, Sony’s new series feature three variants that are not only powerful enough to compete with the flagships from Samsung and LG, but are also competitively priced as well to take on the more affordable novelties from Lenovo and HTC.

Including the Xperia X Performance, the Xperia X and the Xperia XA, Sony’s new Xperia X series are essentially similar to each other although there are several minor differences when it comes to their individual designs. These include variations in terms of hardware, build quality and button placement.

All three new Sony Xperia smartphones run Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box and can be expected to deliver in terms of power and performance.

All three smartphones come with 5-inch displays with Full HD and HD resolutions but have different processors powering their operation. These processors include the Snapdragon 820, Snapdragon 650 and the MediaTek MT6755. Both the Xperia X Performance and Xperia X feature 3GB of RAM and at the very least 32GB of storage with memory expansion via microSD card slot. The two handsets also boast of 23MP rear shooters, 13MP front cameras, and 2,700 mAh power packs.

The Xperia XA on the other hand is a more limited model with only 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage with microSD slot for memory expansion. The handset also features a 13MP Exmor RX camera and a 2,300 mAh battery.

Aside from that, the Xperia X series handsets boast of interestingly unique features such as an edge-to-edge display that curves toward the edges and a predictive AF mechanism in their cameras that maintains focus on the subject by predicting movement.

There is a lot to like about Sony’s new Xperia X series. On the whole though, the smartphones are a bit flat. Despite the company’s claim of “reimagining” its smartphone line, the series seem to be a rehash of the venerable Xperia Z family – great on paper but with almost the same design and claims about camera and battery life.

The display of the handsets may be impressive and they appear to be powerful enough but there isn’t much to really wow us here.

Pricing of the Xperia X series is yet to be announced but unless they are priced competitively, the trio of handsets from Sony might have a hard time competing with the likes of Samsung and LG.